The new European Commission (EC) started its five-year term on 1 December 2024. The EU institutions had spent the last six months selecting, vetting and hearing the candidates for the new College of Commissioners, which consists of 27 Commissioners from each EU Member State and is headed by the EC President, Ursula von der Leyen.

Last Wednesday, on 27 November 2024, the European Parliament (EP) plenary, with 370 votes in favour and 282 against, confirmed the new EC College of Commissioners. The confirmation vote was fairly secure following an agreement between the EP’s largest political groupings, who decided not to object to any of the EC candidates (the EP needs to confirm the College as a whole but can threaten to reject it if the President does not replace any candidates whom the EP does not support). That said, that the College was confirmed with only 54% of the votes (which is the lowest level of support in the last three decades) demonstrates the increased divisions in the EP, including within the political groupings. This outcome was predictable from the politicized nature of the hearings of the Commissioner-designate candidates.

With the confirmation process complete, the new EC can get to work. The general direction that von der Leyen wants to take is obvious from her own confirmation speech in July, in which she presented her political guidelines for the coming five years. Her priorities are centered around strategic autonomy, competitiveness, and a clean industrial deal that aims for a sustainable economy going hand in hand with productivity and investment.

With this in mind, the Spanish politician Teresa Ribera Rodríguez was chosen by von der Leyen as the Executive Vice-President-designate for a Clean, Just and Competitive Transition. Ms. Ribera will have a key role in implementing the new EC’s Clean Industrial Deal policy and strengthening the EU’s competitiveness. In addition, Ms. Ribera will be responsible for the EU’s competition policy and lead DG Competition. In her mission letter, Ms. Ribera is tasked with developing a new approach to competition policy that is more supportive of companies scaling up in global markets and is better aligned with the EU’s decarbonization efforts while allowing European businesses and consumers to benefit from effective competition. More specifically, Ms. Ribera will lead work on a revised and simplified state aid framework to accelerate the climate transition and review the horizontal merger control guidelines. 

Although Ms. Ribera’s hearing did not provide much more colour regarding her priorities, she seems to be willing to look more closely at energy traders during her tenure. Stating that EU competition policy had gone after sectors that are “sensitive for consumers, for example in pharma or food” she argued that it left out “the energy field and the role that traders play in price evolution.” 

We will not have to wait long for Ms. Ribera to take specific actions: following the confirmation vote, von der Leyen announced that the first major initiative of the new EC will be the Competitiveness Compass. The Competitiveness Compass will be based on the three pillars of the September 2024 Draghi report on competitiveness, which are (1) closing the innovation gap; (2) a joint plan for decarbonization and competitiveness; and (3) economic security. Ms. Ribera will be focusing on the second pillar of the Compass, the exact form of which is still rather uncertain.

The beginning of a new EC mandate always gives rise to a lot of ideas. As regards competition policy, the revision of the state aid framework, the review of the horizontal merger control guidelines and the announced review of the Public Procurement Directives will be at the top of the agenda going forward. As indicated in Ms. Ribera’s mission letter and hearing, the new Commissioner leading DG Competition will also aim to strengthen and speed up enforcement of competition rules. 

Interesting times ahead for competition policy!